Penn. Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, producers of 'Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn' talk AmDocs Festival

Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta made history in 2018 when he became the first openly LGBTQ+ person of color elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

A few years later, he announced his candidacy for Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate race, now making him the first openly LGBTQ+ person of color to run for the U.S. Senate. With a win, the Philadelphia native would have become the state's first Black and openly gay U.S. senator.

A historic race like that deserves a bit of attention, and it takes center stage in the personal documentary "Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn," which will screen at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the American Documentary and Animation Film Festival in Palm Springs. Kenyatta, director Timothy Harris and executive producers Hunter Johnson and Derek Helwig, of Xpedition, will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A at the Palm Springs Cultural Center.

Throughout the documentary, the representative's political journey is followed from the campaign trail to debate stages with his fellow democratic opponents, and audiences also get an inside look into his personal life and relationship with husband Matthew Miller, Ph.D. Even though Kenyatta's race was unsuccessful in the end — John Fetterman won the Democratic primary and eventually the Senate race in 2022 — it still offers an optimistic look at what can be possible in the future with politics.

"We always joke if 'Ted Lasso' and 'The West Wing' had a baby, it would be Malcolm. His optimism and his belief in the American system of what it could be is, can't we just have this right now?" Johnson said. "He loses, but it feels like a win for us because, like he says, 'Courage is contagious,' maybe someone in this audience will watch it, maybe someone at home will watch it and go, 'You know what, he did it, I can do it.'"

Prior to the screening at the Palm Springs Cultural Center, Kenyatta, Johnson and Helwig shared insights from the film and what they hope audiences take from it.

What made you want to get involved in politics?

MK: I grew up in a working poor family. My dad was a social worker, and my mom was a home health aide for most of her career. They separated when I was pretty young. By high school, I moved to six different places because you can’t always afford to stay at the same spot. I got my first job at 12.

I was living on this block ... and I come home one day and I’m complaining about everything on the block that was frustrating me, the trash, whatever. My mother said, “If you care so damn much, why don’t you go do something about it?” I was like, “Oh, OK, I thought you were going to give me a hug.” But I ran for junior block captain, and that was the first thing I ever did civically. I think it gave me a real sense early on that I had to take some level of accountability and responsibility for what was going on in the community, and that, frankly, nobody was coming to save us, but we didn’t need anybody to save us. We just need different people who aren’t always tapped on the shoulder to say, “You know what, I have something to offer, I have something to say, and I’m going to run.”

It takes quite a bit of courage to want to run for public office, let alone have a camera crew follow you around. What was that process like?

MK: One of the things that made this process easy was I knew Tim. I’ve known Tim since college, and we had a previous relationship. We didn’t stay in touch years after, but he’s really kept up with my career, and I saw what he was doing with his film company. He actually did a short documentary about me when I ran for state House. I was just really shocked because I did not have an expectation that I was running for statewide office, and Tim says to me, “I want to follow you around because I’m seeing all you’re doing for President Biden and I think you’re going to run statewide.” I said, "Tim, you’re crazy, I’m not running statewide." Tim said, “Well, just let us follow you anyway, and if you end up not doing it, we’ll just throw away the footage.” I was saying, "This is such a waste of your time, why would you want to do this," ... and I was wrong, obviously.

After a while, you forget that they’re there. I made a commitment to myself when I ran for state representative that I was going to win or lose as myself. I never felt like, “Oh, the cameras are on, I need to put on a different air.” I think my only job was to be myself.

HJ: Before we sign a project, especially this one dealing with a politician, we want to make sure their story is authentic. We went through all the raw film that was shot, and the big thing for us was, is he real? Is this the real deal? The last thing we want to do is do a fluff piece.

There's a beautiful moment where he's talking to a student and he says, "Courage is contagious." Pennsylvania as a commonwealth is the microcosm of the United States. It is conservative and liberal, constantly flips back and forth and it's a battleground state for a reason. It took courage to be an out, Black, gay man who represents one of the poorest districts in Philadelphia. He was going uphill on top of another uphill on top of another uphill. What is great is he has the courage to do it, even though the odds are so against him. The bigotry against him is so much. He knows he has to be the first one to take those first steps so that, for the next person behind him who has the courage to do it, it's easier for them and easier for the next person. It's all inspiring to me.

There are a lot of historic firsts achieved with your race runs and wins. What does that mean to you?

MK: Those statistics are frankly a real indictment of our system that we have locked out some of the very people who are going to have the best connection to the answers that we need to solve for. People who know what it’s like to be treated unfairly simply because of who they are, or find themselves trapped in a life where the work that they do isn’t valued in a monetary way. They find themselves in a place where simply by the virtue of their birth, kids are going to grow up in communities where outcomes will be drastically different for them versus their peers somewhere else. In this sort of status quo, we overlook the power of engaging people from the widest, broadest bench to really tussle with our nation’s biggest problems.

What did you take from this film?

HJ: I left with hope. Hope is in very short supply in the LGBTQ community. Our spaces are disappearing, our rights are being eroded every step of the way. Our government doesn't look like us, sound like us, or even care about us.

I just wish I could clone (Kenyatta). If he really had the backing that everyone else had and the platform that everyone else had, and for one moment we could just close our eyes and listen to the words of the politicians, and everyone did that everywhere, he'd be elected tomorrow. But that's the question in the film, what's electability?

What has the reception been like for the film?

DH: Seeing in every screening we've had standing ovations is amazing. From a filmmaker standpoint, you always want that. In our screening this past weekend, we invited our staff who hadn't seen it, and one of them was sitting near Hunter and I and she was crying. Her having never seen it and see that moving reaction was fantastic. I hadn't let my wife watch it until we had a screening, and I could hear her as she's saying "Aw," in moments between him and Dr. Matt. She watches a lot of Hallmark, and they've introduced LGBTQ characters in a way to those movies, but she made a good point by saying, "They have them, but I've never actually seen a relationship on screen with LGBTQ characters," and she's absolutely right. You're getting this new perspective in cinema and on the screen.

MK: A part of what has really made me feel very good about his entire process, even though the result wasn't what I wanted, is that people have left every screening talking about feeling more hopeful than they were before. This race is really a backdrop in the film to talk about our humanity, to talk about our hopes and desires as a community. I really think it's a love letter to North Philly and to Pennsylvania and really lays a marker down of what is possible if we all get and stay engaged. To have three sold-out screenings, starting in London, then in Hollywood and now in Palm Springs ... that feels incredibly special, and if people leave more empowered for themselves, then that's a really good outcome.

If you go

What: "Kenyatta: Do Not Wait Your Turn"

When/where: 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Palm Springs Cultural Center, 2300 E. Baristo Road, Palm Springs

How much: $10

More info: www.amdocfilmfest.com

Ema Sasic covers entertainment and health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Q&A: Penn. Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta chats ahead of AmDocs film screening